Tag : dietary supplements

YOU Are the Truth Champions
By James J. Gormley
Facts. Truth. What is it about versions of these words that have had shifting uses and meanings throughout the millennia? They have been morphed into tools of propaganda, instruments of oppression and even edicts from kings or despots—who say what they decide is

Is a New Drug Strategy Really What We Need to Prevent Alzheimer’s?
By LINDA BONVIE and BILL BONVIE
So what’s up with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? An agency that has been derelict in its duties of protecting the public for quite some time now appears to have gone completely off

Is Vitamin D the Panacea that has Eluded Big Pharma?
By LINDA BONVIE and BILL BONVIE
“We don’t need to develop a new drug. We already have it.”
That’s how the lead author of a new study of one of our most essential nutrients has summed up his team’s surprising new findings about

Happy New Year to all of our supporters, friends, allies and readers.
Now that the wrapping paper is gone and noisemakers are stowed, we wanted to send this very brief note looking back at (and forward to) a few issues relating to natural products, health and the environment.
First, there is general

Although this is coveted as a wonderful bill that is needed in the US so that drugs and medical devices can be fast tracked, if you read the nearly 1000 pages it is clear this is dangerous bill that is has the best interests of the Pharmaceutical industry at heart, NOT its consumers.

AMA Prepares Gag Order for Medical Dissenters -
From Alliance for Natural Health
The American Medical Association’s latest attempt to shore up their medical monopoly could have stiff consequences for practitioners who don’t toe the line. Action Alert!
Angered by what they call “quack MDs,” the AMA recently decided to “actively defend the

Courtesy of our allies at Alliance for Natural Health
This time it’s been slipped into a defense bill. Major Action Alert - Send Your Letter Now!
We suspected it would only be a matter of time before Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) launched his next broadside against supplements. Once again, Durbin and his

The Medical Establishment’s “Favorite” Doctor and His Crusade Against Supplements and Alternative Medicine

Paul Offit’s new book and media blitz pretend to be objective, but really offer one-sided bashing of natural healthcare.

Dr. Paul Offit, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at? Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia? has authored a new book, Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine (Harper, 2013 ). Now on the stump, he encourages thinking more critically about healthcare treatments. Too bad his is a one-sided view. And that his intended audience is unlikely to be convinced because health information has been increasingly available over the last 25 years. Nor do many physicians and prominent medical organizations subscribe to his views (although a few legislators do).

“People are systematically choosing to manage their own health in a way that is unprecedented,” points out James S. Turner, chairman of Citizens for Health, a health advocacy group with over 100,000 members. “The conventional treatments that Offit champions are often very helpful. The problem is that the industry has oversold them, and more and more people see that now.”

If Offit’s book had aimed to explore all health options even-handedly for their upsides and their downsides, it might have truly advanced the conversation about how to better health and lower healthcare costs. (And ranking below 16 developed nations across the lifespan and for all income levels, while stuck in the midst of a polarized debate over costs and coverage, the U.S. sorely needs that conversation.) But instead, in his book and media tour, Dr. Offit plays the predictable role of debunker, single-mindedly championing his own medical brand. Unfurling an arch skepticism about the use of herbs and other nutritional supplements, for example, Offit presents himself as the stalwart for science. But it’s instructive to see what happens when he encounters someone conversant with the health literature.

Capitol Wellness Expo
Exhibits, Speakers, Networking
February 7, 2013
10:00a to 5:30p, Cannon House Office Building, Rooms 121 and 122.
Free Admission. All are welcome.
Please take a moment to forward this flyer to your Representative and Senators. Ask them to send someone from their offices, and to post the flyer.
Click here